Che Guebee Apiary: Honeybee thermo-videos in winter and summer + Homeostasis

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Honeybee thermo-videos in winter and summer + Homeostasis

In this video you can see how bee heat the cluster. You can also notice that the ambient hive temperature goes down to -15'C demonstrating clearly that bees DO NOT heat the hive it self but the wax comb within the cluster. Wax comb is great at retaining heat which radiates back at the bees. Smart indeed.

In the second video you will see the bees in summer

You can read about this German study here;
http://mietz.imkerforum.de/the_idea.html

Another interesting study on Homeostasis - Humidity and Water Relations in Apis mellifera

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What is Natural Beekeeping?

"Natural Beekeeping" is a concept, an idea which springs from a human mind and as such will differ from one person to another, from one culture to another, depending on our limited and conditioned perception about what it IS being a Honeybee. Since natural beekeeping is an idea and not the actuality it is not to be taken rigidly. Instead it is to be directly inspired by the Actuality. But let's avoid going too philosophical about it and let me simply describe how I see "natural beekeeping" benefiting honeybees (these are only guidelines not a dogma);

- free wax comb construction resulting in clean wax and various cell size

- bees overwinter on their own honey stores (feeding sugar syrup ONLY if absolutely necessary)

- lots of peace (low interference from the beekeepers part)

- treatment free (The only way to have a sustainable system of beekeeping is to stop treating, instead making splits from survivor colonies seems the most natural way to me)

- bees are allowed to raise as many Drones as needed (no drone culling)

- natural Queen selection resulting in the strongest Queen (no queen cell culling and only working with local Queens or my own)

- pesticide free bee zone and supporting organic farming (this is a global issue and must be dealt with locally first through environmental organisations and by buying and growing organic food/clothing, etc ...)

- expanding my apiary every year by making splits using Queen Cells from my own strong survivor colonies or catching local swarms. This is the best way to counteract winter losses.

- planting for the bees flowering trees, bushes and plants covering all seasons. Biodiversity is the best healer for the bees and all other creatures.

Natural Beekeeping

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Honeybee thermo-videos in winter and summer + Homeostasis

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Catching my very first Prime Swarm